袁 媛

　　Love and Hatred in Wuthering Heights—An Analysis on Heathcliff's Characteristics

　　袁 媛Wuthering Heights, the great novel by Emily Bronte, though not inordinately long is an amalgamation of childhood fantasies, friendship, romance and revenge. But the story is not a simple story of revenge; it has more profound implications. The character Heathcliff embodies the extreme love and the extreme hatred of the humanity. That extreme love and extreme hatred mix together makes the novel take on the thick dramatic color. In this thesis, the author tries to analyze Heathcliff's characteristics—love and hatred. Hatred can't make the love disappear. Love is stronger than hatred. This is also the theme of this novel.Wuthering Heights Heathcliff Love HatredAuthor:Yuan Yuan, a teaching assistant at College of Foreign Languages and Cultures in Chengdu University, majoring in English language and literature, and also an oral test examiner of Public English Test System.

Ⅰ. A brief introduction to Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights was Emily Bronte's only novel, and is considered the fullest expression of her deeply individual poetic vision. It obvious contains many romantic influences: Heathcliff is a very Byronic Character, though he lacks the self-pitying that mars many Byronic characters, and is deeply attached to the natural world. When the novel was written, the peak of the Romantic age had passed: we should be very grateful that Emily Bronte lived such an isolated life, and was in some sense behind the times. The novel expresses deep criticism of social conventions, particularly those surrounding issues of gender: notice that the author distributes "feminine" and "masculine" characteristics without regard to sex. Bronte had difficulties living in society while remaining true to the things she considered important: the ideal of woman as delicate beings who avoid physical or mental activity and pursue fashions and f irtations was repugnant to her.

Ⅱ. Criticisms on the character Heathcliff

Emily's sister Charlotte Bronte wrote in the preface to the second edition of Wuthering Heights: "Heathcliff betrays one solitary human feeling, and that is not his love for Catherine; which is a sentimental fierce and inhuman; a passion that might boil and glow in the bad essence of some evil genius; a fire that might form the tormented centre—the ever-suffering soul of a magnate of the infernal world; and by its quenchless and ceaseless ravage effect the execution of the decree which dooms him to carry Hell with him wherever he wanders. No; the single link that connects Heathcliff with humanity is his rudely-confessed regard for Hareton Earnshaw—he young man whom he has ruined; and then his half-implied esteem for Nelly Dean. These solitary traits omitted, we should say he was child neither of Lascar nor gipsy, but a man's shape animated by demon life—a Ghoul—an Afreet."

　　Heathcliff is often interpreted as a representative of natural man or pure passion. Tom Winnifrith, in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, picks up on the idea of Heathcliff as a force of nature and attributed his attraction in part to his association with the landscape and to his honesty, however, brutal. The character is vividly realized in his own right—George Henry Lewes described Heathcliff as a "devil...drawn with a sort of dusty splendor which fascinates" .In an essay in Reference Guide to English Literature, Winifred Gerin calls Heathcliff's self-induced death by starvation 'one of the most powerful and daring climaxes in English f ction".

Ⅲ. Heathcliff's characteristics

Wuthering Heights centers around the story of Heathcliff—the orphan boy Mr. Earnshaw found in Liverpool. He becomes Mr. Earnshaw's foster son, and the foster brother of Catherine and Hindley. He looks very different with his dark skin, hair, and eyes, and his speech is at f rst incoherent. He becomes best friend with Catherine, but Hindley hates him. Father favors Heathcliff, and becomes furious when he is treated poorly. They form a sort of team, though Heathcliff never shows much love or appreciation. He eventually becomes selfish and mean from all this attention, and his favored spot means he can get what he wants from his brother and sister. After Mr. Earnshaw's death, Hindley returns and makes Heathcliff a servant, refusing him the right to speak to Catherine. Life becomes miserable, and the little outsider blames Hindley; revenge becomes his only goal in life. Growing evil and cruel, he gets his chance when Hindley becomes mad after his wife's death, and Heathcliff is able to take Wuthering Heights from him. Catherine, his love, marries Edgar Linton and dies in childbirth. To revenge himself against Lintons, Heathcliff marries Edgar's sister, treats her terribly, and raises their son only because he can help further his revenge. And when he forces Catherine's daughter to marry Linton, his revenge is nearly complete. Heathcliff is a man on the edge: spiteful, mad, and insecure. He went mad after Catherine's death, when he asked her to haunt him until he died. From her death until his own, he believes himself haunted by her ghost. Prior to his own death, he withdrew from everyone, wandering the moors. After his death, people claim he became a ghost himself, wandering the moors with Catherine.

　　Except for Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, the tempestuous and revengeful Heathcliff has no equal in English literature. His intense love for Catherine and his relentless revenge on his enemy make him a unique f gure.

　　Passion, particularly unnatural passion, is a predominant theme of Wuthering Heights. Although there has been at least one Freudian interpretation of the novel, the nature of the passion between Catherine and Heathcliff does not appear to be based on sex. Virginia Woolf once said: 'There is love, but it is not the love of man and woman."

　　The love entanglement between Heathcliff and Catherine is the centre of the whole novel. It experiences kinds of hardships, which comes from the beginning to the tragic ending. On his return from a business trip to Liverpool, Mr. Earnshaw brings with him 'a dirty, ragged, black-haired" (Bronte 39) orphan from a Liverpool slum. Mr. Earnshaw brings him up as one of his own child. This arouses the fierce resentment of his son Hindley and he takes an intense dislike to the boy. But Mr. Earnshaw's daughter, Catherine takes an immense liking to him and they become the best friends. After Mr. Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is maltreated by Hindley and lives like a despised animal. Meanwhile Catherine can not get brother's caress and family's warm after her parents' death. As a result, she has no one to depend on, just like 'an orphan". The same destiny as a bond ties Catherine and Heathcliff together more firmly; the same interests and the object to revolt make their friendship from the childhood more solidly. Heahcliff, being treated with bias by others, can get a great consolation from Catherine; however, wild Catherine can get friendship and warm from Heathcliff. The friendship between Heathcliff and Catherine develops into passionate love. They consider the other's existence as the condition of themselves' existence. As far as Heathcliff is concerned, if there is no Catherine, 'two words may comprehend my future—death and hell: existence, after losing her, would be hell"(Bronte 167).

　　Catherine and Heathcliff were deeply in love with each other and had been soul mates ever since childhood. Heathcliff loves Catherine because she is 'wild and a free spirit" and wants to be with her forever, Catherine comments, ' My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath". (Bronte 92) Therefore, she does not want to marry Heathcliff because she feels it would degrade her, but makes the decision to marry Edgar Linton. Heathcliff overhears it, and he runs away from Wuthering Heights. Upon returning he confesses to Catherine that he never stops loving her. He is as 'rough as a saw-edge and hard as whinstone". Heathcliff says to dying Catherine: 'You teach me now how cruel you've been—cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word for comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself....I have not broken your heart—you have broken it, you have broken mine." (Bronte 180) His crazy, abnormal love to Catherine is fully expressed in this acrimonious and bitter hatred.

　　Bronte uses her fabulous imagination to emerge the painful and complex love experience of Heathcliff and Catherine. At the same time, she castigates the vulgar social prejudice's destroy to free love.

　　In the first 33 chapters, the novel clearly establishes Heathcliff's great passion for Catherine. However, there are certain tensions, contradictions, and ambiguities present in Chapter 34 that establish the true intensity Heathcliff's feeling towards Catherine; feelings so intense that they border on a jealous obsession.

　　Chapter 34 begins with a tension in regard to Heathcliff's disposition. Since Heathcliff's countenance has seldom expressed anything but a sullen disposition, certainly nothing even remotely resembling joy, it comes as somewhat of a surprise. This is entirely unlike the Heathcliff that has been established up until this point. Since Catherine has previous almost always been the cause of such wild mood f uctuations, it stands to reason that she has somehow inspired this wild and frightening joy in him as well.

　　During the final days of his life, Heathcliff's curious behavior continues. He refuses to eat, absents himself from the company of Cathy, Hareton, or Nelly, disappears inexplicably for long intervals of time and refuses to explain his absences. Most disturbing, his strange excitement continues, causing discomfort to all those around him. It is a horrible, frightening thing. In Heathcliff, the mood arouses wariness and fear in others and indicated some inner change so dramatic the its cause is almost unthinkable.

　　Of course, the only thing previously that has caused Heathcliff to f uctuate so wildly in his moods and to hover between such dramatically varying temperaments is Catherine. Nelly, having been witness to Heathcliff's fits of passion and rages in regard to Catherine is shrewd enough to credit his appearance and strange condition to her former mistress, even though she has been dead for many years. Heathcliff has previously professed the misery Catherine's death has caused him and stated his desire to be close to her—his anticipation to meet her when he dies.

　　When Heathcliff does finally die, the cause of his death is never really ascertained. His countenance in death is almost a smile, at the same time a sneer, according to Nelly—a look of life—like exultation. His countenance doesn't suggest which end he met—the sneer he wears in death is close to his normal expression in life. It must be assumed that his obsession with Catherine, his desperate yearning to be with her, and his longing for death was what ultimately killed him.

　　That such a longing could actually kill Heathcliff suggests that perhaps what he was experiencing was more than love. It seems unlikely that love would inspire in Heathcliff such rage and anger as consumed his life for the many years following Catherine's death. That love alone could cause his physical decline and death seems unlikely as well. Heathcliff's condition indicates that what he felt towards Catherine was more than love—it was more like a violent obsession, fueled by a mad jealous and hatred of anyone who dared to stand between himself and her.

　　Heathcliff's devotion to Catherine, on the other hand, is ferocious, and when frustrated, he conceived to a plan of revenge of enormous proportions. In some respects, the passion that Catherine and Heathcliff share is so pure that it approaches a kind of spirituality. In the character of Heathcliff, who feel slighted in love, Emily draws a parallel between the need for love and the strength of hatred. It's the class conf ict that causes Heathcliff's hatred for his enemy. To the characters of Wuthering Heights, property ownership and social standing are inextricable. The Earnshaws and the Lintons both own estates. Whereas Heathcliff is a foundling and has nothing. Catherine plans to marry Linton to use her husband's money to raise Heathcliff's domination. Her plan is foiled when Heathcliff overhears Catherine say that to marry him would degrade her, but fails to hear her profess her love for him. Catherine makes the famous statement, 'Nelly, I am Heathcliff—he's always, always in my mind—not as a pleasure, any more that I am always a pleasure to myself—but as my own being—so don't talk of our separation again—it's impracticable..."(Bronte 92). When he returns, he exerts great efforts to do people out of their property—f rst Hindley, then Isabella, then Catherine Linton. He takes revenge on Hareton by ensuring that the boy is raised in ignorance, with loutish manners, so that he will never escape his station.

　　Heathcliff is full of hatred for the Earnshaw and Linton families. He wants to revenge. These families he sets about to destroy, especially after the death of Cathy. First he reduces Hindley to a gambler and a drunkard and takes possession of Wuthering Heights. Although he has no affection for Edgar's sister Isabella, he marries her in order to take possession of Thrushcross Grange and later by marrying little Cathy at his sickly son Linton. In due time, he drives Hindley, Isabella and Edgar to death and has Hindley's son Hareton and Cathy at his mercy. Especially to Hareton, Heathcliff does his best to make Hareton a tool of his revenge against Hindley. At the same time, he succeeds in creating a reproduction of himself. Heathcliff did all of this because of his extreme hatred. Hatred is not a good way to solve the problem. Hatred drives Heathcliff to revenge, to destroy everything, including his life and the others'. Heathcliff, the former victim of tyranny, becomes yet another tyrannical man ruling Wuthering Heights.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte shows us the tense conflict of love and hatred. At the same time, she indicates the change and integration of the love and the hatred. Heathcliff shows his hatred for all the people, because he has ever lost his love. His feeling is hurt greatly. Heathcliff is a bitter man; his love and hatred are trained in the lives. In fact, what makes Heathcliff hate all the people, even revenge all the people around him, is the loss of his love Catherine. Catherine loves Heathcliff, but she is unable to marry Heathcliff because of his low birth. She marries Edgar Linton because of financial and social advantages, though she doesn't love him. She even thinks that she can help Heathcliff in this way. But Heathcliff is tormented greatly by the Catherine's betrayal. He can't bear that. At this time, his love for Catherine is changed to the hatred for Hindley and Edgar Linton. He seeks to destroy Hindley and Edgar Linton blaming them for losing Catherine. He believes that Hindley caused his loss of Catherine by degrading him. After Catherine's death, he becomes aggravated. Her death fuels Heathcliff's rage against Hindley and Edgar. This reflects that hatred is love's alienation. If there is no love, there is no hatred; love more deeply, hate more deeply. But at last of the novel, Heathcliff, an old man, becomes detached from external reality and longs for the death that will reunite him with Catherine. When he feels Catherine's ghost coming, he says to Cathy: 'Will you come, chuck? I'll not hurt you. No! to you I've made myself worse than the devil. Well, there is one who won't shrink from my company! By God! She's relentless. Oh, damn it! It's unutterably too much for f esh and blood to bear—even mine." (Bronte 375-376) The visional love makes him lose the desire to revenge, lose the power to revenge. He says: 'It is a poor conclusion, is it not?…an abused termination to my violent exertions? I get levers and mattocks to demolish the two houses, and train myself to be capable of working like Hercules, and when everything is ready and in my power, I f nd the will to lift a slate off either roof has vanished! My old enemies have not beaten me; now would be the precise time to revenge myself on their representatives: I could do it; and none could hinder me. But where is the use? I don't care for striking; I can't take the trouble to raise my hand! That sounds as if I had been laboring the whole time only to exhibit a f ne trait of magnanimity. It is far from being the case: I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing." (Bronte 363) He doesn't kill Hareton, because Cathy and Hareton's eyes just like Catherine's eyes. Nelly has said: 'I suppose this resemblance disarmed Mr. Heathcliff." (Bronte 362) This ref ects that the love is the hatred's home that one f nally returns to. Love and hatred not only conf ict with each other, but also change with each other. Hatred is not the hatred; it's only the love's alienation. The love dominates all of the things, and the frustration of the love drives Heathcliff to do so many savage acts. He can't help doing, just like a lunatic shouldn't be responsible for what he had done. Heathcliff's life illustrates the change and integration of the love and hatred. Love—hatred—revenge—wake up to humanity, all his life, is the circle of man's humanity.

　　注解【Notes】

　　[1] A Byronic hero is defined by Thomas B. Macaulay according to The Oxford Campanion to English Literature (Oxford University Press, New York, 1985) as "proud, moody, cynical, with def ance on his brow, and misery in his heart...implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection".

　　A New Anthology of English Literature. Volume 2, 1996.

　　Cliff's Notes on Bronte's Wuthering Heights, 1979.

　　Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism: Volume 16, Gale Research, 1992.

　　Novels for Students: Volume 2 Gale Research, 1997. pp.308-320.

　　[英]艾米莉·勃朗特：《呼啸山庄》（英文版），延边人民出版社2010年版。

　　[英]艾米莉·勃朗特：《呼啸山庄》，方平译，中国对外翻译出版公司2012年版。

　　（《呼啸山庄》之爱恨情仇——希斯克利夫性格解读）《呼啸山庄》是艾米莉·勃朗特的一部杰出小说。尽管篇幅不长，它却综合了童年的幻想、友谊、爱情和复仇。但这并不仅仅是一个讲述复仇的故事；它有更多深远的含义。希斯克利夫这一角色象征了人性中极端的爱与极端的恨。这两者综合在一起使小说呈现出浓厚的戏剧色彩。本文尝试分析了希斯克利夫的性格特征——爱恨交织。仇恨不能让爱消失，爱可以胜过仇恨。这也是这部小说的主题。《呼啸山庄》 希斯克利夫 爱 恨袁媛，成都大学外国语学院助讲，主要研究英语文学。全国公共英语等级考试(PETS)口试考官。作品【Works Cited】